Three-Day Chag

Rosh Hashanah begins here in a few hours. The two-day holiday will move right into Shabbat, meaning that’s three days of eating a lot, praying a lot, and no real showering. A tall order, especially for Israelis, for whom the Yom Tov holidays are generally kept for one day, as opposed to two days everywhere else.

But I know I can do it. Why? Four years ago, when I started keeping all of the laws of Shabbat, the holidays also fell out in such a way that there was three days of Yom Tov and Shabbat. I figured that if I could follow all of these restrictions and keep the holiday atmosphere for three days, then surely keeping Shabbat wouldn’t seem so difficult!

Well, with a minor or slip and fall here and there, there has been no turning back. While normally taking a gradual approach toward major lifestyle changes has been my modus operandi, there are times when I’ve gone “cold turkey” (such as, ironically, giving up meat before entering college).

When something really feels right (or wrong), it’s can be difficult to be gradual, imprecise, or half-hearted about it.